The Irish Times' Keith Duggan on Ireland v England at Croke Park

[IolarCoisCuain]

Keith Duggan says what needed to be said, after all the blather and hype. Superb writing.




This time England free to play different role

KEITH DUGGAN

Sat, Feb 28, 2009

SIDELINE CUT: It is time to acknowledge that Ireland versus England, Six Nations 2007, was one of the weirdest evenings in the history of Irish sport

ENGLAND AGAIN! Much has changed since that chill and hazy February evening two years ago when 15 men in pristine white shirts emerged from the tunnel of the Hogan Stand in Croke Park, beaten before they ever took the field. In retrospect, the men wearing the red rose of England that night hadn't a chance. As John Pullin immortally remarked of his own English team that showed up in Dublin during the tense months of 1972: "We mightn't always win, but at least we turn up."

Two years ago, an English rugby team turned up for what was, as they say, a night to remember. But remembered for what? It is time to acknowledge that Ireland versus England, Six Nations 2007, was one of the weirdest evenings in the history of Irish sport.

How could the English have won on an evening aquiver with the weight of a dark episode in Irish history being righted – through a rugby match? Gamely, the boys from the Home Counties appeared on the field. Englishmen, back on Croke Park, so many decades after . . . lest we forget . . . uncertain of how they would be received. The sight of them standing there brought to mind Captain George's description in Blackadder Goes Forth of his pals as they signed up in August 1914: "Crashingly superb bunch of blokes. Fine, clean-limbed; even our acne had a strange nobility about it."

They walked out onto the field fully accepting their meek roles in what, with the distance of a full two years, seems an even more bizarre pageant of mixed-up history, sentimentalism, boozy national pride, slick marketing, incessant anthem singing and the vaguely uncomfortable sense that a rugby match had become a mass rally for Irish jingoism. Gravely, the English boys stood along shoulder to shoulder as God Save the Queen sounded over out. They understood the significance of the moment. They understood their presence in Croke Park was a big deal, that the idea of St George's flag fluttering over the red-bricked terraces of Dublin city evoked keen emotions in the Irish.

And they understood that in the dim and distant past, when Europe was recovering from one world war and assembling the various attitudes and philosophies that would set it on an irrevocable path towards a second, that Englishmen in uniform had once done something terrible in this ground. They knew because they were given a history lecture on Bloody Sunday in the days before the game. Nobody can be certain how that little talk ended, but it might have been along the lines of: "All in all chaps, it might be best if you finished second best in the match."

So a few lonely-sounding English voices loyally sang their tribute to queen and country and the glories of lost empire in this old sporting theatre, the last bastion of Irish nationalism.

And then the miracle: you could hear a penny drop. That is what we said afterwards, pouring out of the ground and into the super-pubs. The Irish stood up and stood silent and allowed the guests of the nation to sing it out. And we were proud of ourselves.

A bit teary, in fact. We are nothing if not a sentimental lot and never pass up a chance to celebrate ourselves. Look at us now, we marvelled: a mature, sophisticated, modern country. And rich! When it came to our turn for the anthems – Amhrán na bhFiann for Southerners, Phil Coulter's best for Our Friends in the North – we gave it socks. Shook the foundations of "Croker".

In fact, we proclaimed, the old girl never had such a good time in all her years. The GAA opened up their hall but it took the rugby crowd to show them how to hold a real dance.

On to the game, and there was only one team in it. Ireland thundered into England and it soon became clear Albion's challenge was pale. As the match turned into a rout, the atmosphere was raucous and jubilant and it thirsted for more scores, it thirsted for the sight and sensation of an England team crushed in this old theatre of new dreams.

The English team played their part, the English newspapers said all the rights things – were glowing in their praise of us, in fact – and, as their aeroplanes wheeled high over Dublin Bay to deliver them back to Blighty, they must have scratched their heads and wondered what the hell it was all about. If ever the English were destined not to understand the Irish, it was that weekend.

But the whole occasion was all just plain wrong. It was manufactured emotion. The big problem with everything that happened that night was that it overlooked the huge, glaring fact that what happened on Bloody Sunday belongs to GAA culture. It is part of their history. True, there were GAA men in the crowd delighted their stadium could play host to this international sports fixture. But equally, there was a significant minority of GAA people who rued – and continue to – the day when Croke Park was opened up.

And there was still another element who could never quite understand how the memory of what was a real and terrible atrocity could be married to what was a finely tuned international sports event, as if it were somehow part of the programme of events along with the three-course dinners, the advertising and the television hoopla.

It is easy to understand why the night mattered so much to the Irish rugby players. The hype and moral expectation in the days before the game was all but unbearable: whatever about the public forgiving them had they lost, it is unlikely that they would have forgiven themselves. The players were as this group have been throughout: committed and blazing with pride, proud to play for Ireland.

The fault was with the rest of us. It was with everyone who contributed to the myth that Ireland versus England 2007 marked some sort of natural understanding between two nations with a close and bloody past. It was never that. Ireland got carried away with the conjured portents that the evening held and the English sportingly played along. Then, they had no choice to do otherwise.

Two years on and England come back, the underdogs again and thorns in those roses they wear on their breasts. Martin Johnson could recite Henry V's St Crispin's Day's speech for all anyone cares this evening: there is not so much talk about Croke Park as the hallowed ground this time around.

That must be a relief for the English lads. At least they won't have to listen solemnly to Irish history lessons. At least they won't have to run into a stadium full of 70,000 Paddies in High Pomposity mode. And at least they won't have to feel guilty about being English.

© 2009 The Irish Times

[ardal]

And at least they won't have to feel guilty about being English.

I'm still in the no camp, so why shouldn't they feel guilty?

[Zapatista]

Keith Duggan says what needed to be said, after all the blather and hype. Superb writing.

Sorry i couldn't finish it as it seemed to be more of the usual dumbing down crap I hear more often now than I ever did.

[Zapatista]

Keith Duggan says what needed to be said, after all the blather and hype. Superb writing.

Sorry i couldn't finish it as it seemed to be more of the usual dumbing down crap I hear more often now than I ever did.

Actually it is niot a bad piece as that event was such a load of hyperbole- talk of greatest day in Irishs sport and all that. was far from it. While I have no real problem with  rugby beinmg palyed in Croke Park I did find the playing of GSTQ to be nausiating. Tried to be open to it but actually turnedoff the Tv and went out. For that reason will not attend that fixture as should not be played there until Britain pulls out of the north of the country. Then would be okay as a guest nation over visiting.   

I just brought myself to finish it. The first part nearly made me puke, he probably should have finished it earlier. He does take away the dumbling down in the second part so I take back what I said.

[Jinxy]

Duggan doesn't do "dumbing down".
He's the best sports journalist in the country.

[Zapatista]

Duggan doesn't do "dumbing down".
He's the best sports journalist in the country.

A country full of dumb people perhaps

[An Laoch]

Keith Duggan says what needed to be said, after all the blather and hype. Superb writing.



What's superb about it?

He says the last Ireland v England rugby match was overhyped. No news to me. It was an arrangement that suited both the GAA and IRFU, nothing else to it. History sold to financial and logistical reality.

I happen to like Duggan's writing - his Mayo book is well worth reading, but there's nothing new here.

[IolarCoisCuain]

there's nothing new here.

A Laoch, a chara, if you can dig out a link to anything published in Irish national media that condemned the hoopla surrounding that rugby game two years ago, and the insult to the GAA inherent in that hoopla, then please post it here. Because this article by Keith Duggan is the first time I've read an outright condemnation of everything surrounding that game expressed in a national media organ.

Here's a quote from the Duggan piece for anyone else that might be struggling to read it:

But the whole occasion was all just plain wrong. It was manufactured emotion. The big problem with everything that happened that night was that it overlooked the huge, glaring fact that what happened on Bloody Sunday belongs to GAA culture. It is part of their history. True, there were GAA men in the crowd delighted their stadium could play host to this international sports fixture. But equally, there was a significant minority of GAA people who rued – and continue to – the day when Croke Park was opened up.

If any national media organisation published anything like that in the past two years since that game was played I didn't see it. And that's what's new here, and that's why I posted the piece.

People like to huff and puff on this Board about the GAA being under-represented in the national media - you all remember the thread about the Late Late Show. So when someone comes out with so profoundly a pro-GAA piece I thought it was worth drawing people's attention to it. I'm sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings doing so.

[An Laoch]

would be interesting to see what Duggan wrote at the time, one hopes he has been consistent

Some of the full time controversialists must have swam against the tide? Myers? Waters? Dunphy? Hook?

It was indeed a media love in at the time ICC, and I'm not criticizing you personally for posting it at all. It's just that its a view I already had, so wasnt 'new' to me in that sense.

[moysider]

I m with Iolar on this one. Duggan nailed that spot on. Nobody else that I m aware of has dared to kick this sacred cow up the hole before. Or not at any length anyway. But Stephen Jones in last weeks Sunday Times did make a cutting observation on the occasion. This is what he wrote.


''Two years ago, England had to pussyfoot around Croke Park for fear of offending the sensibilities of those who saw the place as a political shrine instead of a sports stadium. England were thrashed. On Saturday they have to dismantle the whole place. They must win.''

It would nt surprise me if Duggan was set off by the above.

[An Laoch]

JJ Barrett laid a few solid boots up the hole of the sacred cow did he not? And got plenty of media coverage for his actions and opinion too.

[moysider]

JJ Barrett laid a few solid boots up the hole of the sacred cow did he not? And got plenty of media coverage for his actions and opinion too.

The medals protest? Not sure Duggan has a problem playing Rugby Union in Croke Parke. Just the rigmarole that made the Ireland England test match 2 years ago an unreal sporting occasion. Not aware that JJ Barrett made any comment on the match itself but I may have missed it.

[Tyrone Dreamer]

Wouldnt rate the entertainment value of todays match as higher than Tyrone Kerry in 2003. Dont think we'll be hearing about it for 2 years though. Instead there'll be a bit of spin about how physical it was.

[Mike Sheehy]

Wouldnt rate the entertainment value of todays match as higher than Tyrone Kerry in 2003. Dont think we'll be hearing about it for 2 years though. Instead there'll be a bit of spin about how physical it was.

You're right. Tyrone played a much better brand of rugby that day.

[anglocelt39]

Wouldnt rate the entertainment value of todays match as higher than Tyrone Kerry in 2003. Dont think we'll be hearing about it for 2 years though. Instead there'll be a bit of spin about how physical it was.

You're right. Tyrone played a much better brand of rugby that day.

Yerra boy that's the kingdom for ya, 30something all Irelands one and whined their way to 30 or 40 more